Session 05
Game date March 12, 2011 Game notes Jeffrey was late, due to his Georgia game. Russel started being included around during Moore's speech. Game log A week on the ship A week aboard ship passes. Progress is fine. * Thomas: goes to survival / radio / mechanical classes, plays cards with the mechanic and the engineer. * Luo: Chinese archaeology at night, classes by day. * Owen: gambling, drinking, selling booze (within reason) -- basically turning his room into a bar. * Grey: studies the diary, goes to classes. * Russel: Owen mostly hangs out with the sailors and a few of the expeditioners. He's heard a number of people rumouring about Starkweather -- that he's jinxed, or incompetent, or an active danger to everyone around him. After Captain Douglas's death and the fire on the pier, the sailors on board want to stay as far away from Starkweather as possible. They mention that past expeditions he's been on have been... less than pristinely executed. Seasickness The seas become a bit more choppy, and the party gets seasick. In 12 hour increments: * Thomas: ill, ill, fine * Owen: fine, ill, ill * Evey: fine, ill, fine * Luo: fine, fine, ill * Russel: Early next afternoon, Luo and Owen are... momentarily incapacitated by all the heaving, as the ship goes into even rougher waters, and then a full-fledged storm. Engines go arollin' An alarm goes up! Suddenly, all of the sailors are running about -- cargo in one of the holds is becoming "unheld", as it were. (This occurs about midway through the third 12-hour segment, noted above.) Thomas overhears something about engines, so he catches one of the guys, the first mate, who's running to assist. "We need trained seamen for this. Some cargo's become unstowed. We can deal." Starkweather comes down from his cabin, and corrals Thomas into helping out, even though the first mate says that it's good. There's a lot of chaos. The lighting is not the best, and there are a group of sailors peering around hatch to get down into the #2 hold. Thomas hears loud reverberating bangs, as something rolls from side to side. Sailors are gathering rope, both to use for their own personal safety and to try to batten down the engines. After another rumble and bang, there's a pained scream, which urges Starkweather into action. He yells to Thomas to throw down the rope, which he does. Thomas then goes down. There's a half dozen sailors, and two rampaging 800-pound plane engines rolling about. The sailors appear to be trying to create a net of sorts to grab one, as it comes to rest against the bulkhead. Starkweather shoves one of the men aside, grabs some of the rope stuff, and "Come to it, man, we need every man we can get!" (Then, why...?) Thomas goes to help with the rope construction thing. The ship shifts again, and the engines roll some more. A couple of the sailors scramble aside; one bumps into Thomas, who keeps his feet, keeps the rope, and steadies the sailor. Starkweather is not so lucky, and tumbles to the ground, nearly tripping another sailor. The engine comes to rest against the bulkhead, and sailors, plus Thomas, rush forward with the rope. The plan seems to be to use the rope to temporarily lash the engine to the wall, long enough for people to get more rope and batten it down to the cleats. In the meantime, the second engine is still rolling about. Starkweather decides to tackle the second engine, but he doesn't win, and it rolls away, pinning (or "pre-smooshing") a sailor. The engine bounces off the fuselage. The lashing-down to the cleats is taking longer, as a couple of people drag the injured sailor over to another one in the corner. More sailors come down; Starkweather shouts for them to assist with the second engine, and Thomas gets a few to help with the first. Thomas manages to, as the last ropes are put down, shift his grip and get pinched between the rope and the engine. A sizeable chunk of skin is ripped from his forearm as he pulls free. After a bit more effort, the engines are secured. There are a lot of sailors grumbling about "Starkweather's curse" under their breath. ("Bloody Starkers.") They get the injured sailors up. One sailor's leg is mangled, possibly beyond recovery; the other is banged up, bruised, and possibly has a broken arm. Thomas goes up as well. There are a lot of evil looks towards Starkweather... and towards Thomas, due to his association with Starkweather. Luo, in the meantime, has been staggering closer to the hold. The doctor is busy and doesn't need his help, so Luo... decides to help anyhow. Luo treats Thomas's damaged arm, despite his incapacity -- his "verdant pallor", as it were. He creates a poultice and a bandage, which makes his arm feel better. Fixiting The seas continue to be rough for next couple of days, but eventually die down. Luo and Owen start to feel better. Thomas examines the engines and fuselage -- the fuselage is dented, one of the engines is fairly damaged, and one is only slightly damaged. He focuses on fixing the slightly damaged engine, with Evey helping by holding a torch. Moore comes down and congratulates him on his efforts. That one sailor won't walk properly ever again, and may in fact lose his leg. Russel, alas, is still suffering from seasickness. Moore had had a project for Thomas, but now... So, Moore tracks down Owen. He's worried about the other cargo, and asks Owen to check the other equipment -- gauge the extent of the damage, do an inventory of replacements needed, check the perishables and surveying equipment, and so forth. Owen, being helpful, readily agrees. Owen has been maintaining contacts with the crew, which is good. The crew is a little more reticent around Owen; there's more talk about Starkweather's bad luck. Owen: "After Starkweather gave me the evil eye, I knew I was gonna be laid up sick." There's some scuttlebutt about how no one is sure how engines got loose. Owen gets the smartest thugs he can find, and gets crackin' inventoryin'. Inventory-ine Owen focuses on equipment that shifted, or that seems damage; he otherwise doesn't bother opening boxes. Luo finds chlorine mixed in with the photography supplies. He gets the photographer down, who confirms that wtf, chlorine. Davy Jones At some point, the engines shut off. There's a spotlight on the bow * T: doesn't drink with others * G: too pretty * Joan: too shy Dun dun dunnn The next morning at 11:30, there's a long blast on ship's whistle. The ship is on the line, and the engines go silent. The crew is ordered to assemble. Davy Jones appears, and other folk (clad in ropes, seaweed, and so forth) make their way from bow to aft. A bunch of supernatural crew comes on board, ending with her highness Emphatrite sp, her attendants the sea nymphs, and his highness, Neptunus Rex. Neptunus Rex and the captain make nice. Royal Navigator Shellback shall replace the captain for the time being. There's a huge stupid ceremony. Medals, bravery, la la la. One of the injured sailors accepts a cert from Nept. To the noobs: welcome! The crewmen grabbed by the bears, forced through small canvas tunnel, filled with seaweed and fish. Army boot camp montage, now with bonus beer. Scientist types are also forced through; sailors going lighter on them than on the crewmen. Thomas is grabbed; he doesn't bother struggling. He just gets a trim; doc pokes/prods. Evey is grabbed; she doesn't struggle. Joan is grabbed; blah blah blah. At the end, Neptune prpesents us with cert, knights us (as it were), hands us each a beer. Init certificate, yay. Thomas is a shellback; Evey and Joan are sirens. Much drink and feasting follows. Goddammit, the fridge is bust In the late afternoon, there's a kerfluffle. One of the messboys comes up onto deck, coughing and trailing a smell of ammonia. The first mate runs down, and all of the sailors gather 'round. It appears that the refrigeration unit has burst a pipe; the ammonia, which is used as coolant, has escaped and flooded the fridge. Turlough and the bursar grab as much food as they can and fire brigade it out. Unfortunately, it's not possible to stay in for long before choking occurs. Much of the 6 tons of food will spoil in the next week, due to the heat, and much has already been tainted by the ammonia. Owen gets Thomas. He can't really do much, due to the ammonia, so he pinches the pipes shut. The pipes appear to have been corroded. This is possibly the same as the radios, and possibly the ropes had been corroded... alas, no one noticed this. Owen goes to confirm this theory. A lot of the food goes overboard. Starkweather and the captain argue: the captain wants to restock at a nearby island, but Starkweather wants to forge ahead. "Can't get that lady get ahead of us!" Thomas, while working on the fridge, hears some of the crew commenting on Starkweather. They're convinced he's completely lost it. The "Bloody Starkers" nickname sticks more. But Starkweather gets his way, and they press on. Aftermath, again The food for the next couple of days is fairly lavish: meat and dairy, mostly. T checks with Moore to see if fridge is salvageable -- he says to talk to the captain. Owen checks the ropes. They were straps, originally; it looks like they came out from the clamping mechanism. It wasn't necessarily foul play, and there were no signs of acid. Owen finds out who's in charge of security -- it's mostly just the captain, first mate, and the bosun. Owen goes to the first mate, Paul Turlough. Owen mentions the crazy shit that's been going down, and says that it may have been caustic acid that was used. They'd lost a shipment of caustic acid, and had to reorder; it's possible the "lost" cargo may be hidden somewhere. "But, who'd want to ruin things?" Owen suggests a cabin search, starting with Starkweather. Turlough agrees with the Starkweather mutterings. He wants proof; Owen says, hence the cabin search. Turlough says he'd have to talk to the captain, but without evidence, the captain probably won't do anything. Day after Evey is convinced a petition is the way to go, regarding restocking versus forging ahead. Moore talks to her, to ask her to desist. Let's not start dissent... or further it, rather. Evey is reluctant, but Moore is persistent. It's just a few more days, after all. Luo approaches the messboy and asks what he saw. He just went down, the cook had sent him down for party supplies. There was an awful stench, and he couldn't see. He went upstairs, and told the first mate. There was no one else around. He'd last went down for breakfast; several hours had passed. Luo checks the pipes. The copper tubes are fairly thin, so it took maybe 1/4 hour to a couple of hours to eat through. Luo checks his photographic memory against the people at the party -- alas, nein. Luo asks to speak with the captain, who is very busy. The captain doesn't get back to him that day. Dinner is also lavish, to use up the last of the perishables. The cook's crew has been working through the day, trying to cook everything for longevity and prepare for the end of the supplies. Luo checks the water, too. There's a big tank of it; it's a part of the hull, in fact. Could it be, poison? After lunch, there's a rash of illness among the crew and expeditionary staff. Several people are flushed and unsteady; others collapse, convulsing, with some foaming. They're affected to greater and lesser degrees; in the worse cases, death follows in about 10 minutes. Luo diagnoses that there's poison involved. He interviews them all (those who are alive): all ate the beef jerky, so Luo investigates the beef jerky, then the water. He finds a white powder around the jerky crate. Luo confers with the ship's doctor and the expedition doctor -- they concur with the poison diagnosis. Given the cardiovascular symptoms and white powder, it's likely to be strychnine. Luo talks to the messboy who opened the crate. The white powder was not that evident when he went down to open the crate; he just grabbed the jerky for food, like one does. Everyone had it for breakfast and lunch. Luo thinks it was there before the crate was ever opened. He talks to Owen, and says that it's evidence. Owen says he'll talk with the first mate, though he doesn't think much will come of it. Luo thinks that it might be more worthwhile to talk to the captain or to Starkweather. Owen thinks that's unlikely, but agrees. Owen and Lynch, therefore, go to talk to Starkweather. They collect Evey. Thomas declines, in favour of working on the engines. Starkweather is in his cabin, talking with Moore and Dr. Green. Starkweather, Moore, and Green are planning how to deal with the ongoing issues, and will announce about it shortly. Owen tries to talk to Starkweather, but he puts the group off. Luo asks when Starkweather will search the ship, but he only replies that all will be evident later today. Bastard. Owen suggests, after they leave the cabin, talking to the first mate. (The captain is not on the bridge; he's talking to the sick sailors on the medical board. ) Owen recommends investimagatin', but Turlough is hesitant. Owen: "Fuckin' Jerry Biggs was right." Luo goes to search the ship. Evey gets Joan to help. Nothing's found. Owen searches his cabin; no contraband is evident. Meeting and investigation A couple of hours later, Moore and Dr. Green call a meeting. Everyone crowds around the forward deck; there's a lots of unrest. All are present, sans the few on the medical board. Moore talks to the group. Please be discreet, and gain access to the holds. Turlough will assist. Hopefully, the group will stay under the radar, and will not caught or otherwise noticed by the saboteur. Ideally, any future sabotage will be caught before it goes live. "The four of you seem capable, and willing to investigate on your own. I trust you to look after the needs of expedition, and to be discreet. We're only a few days way from Sao Paulo. We can search more when we arrive, but we can't afford to wait. This could all just be from the States, and not be being sabotaged by someone on board right now, but let's not guess." Luo brings up a theory. There was, as noted before, a possible theft of the first shipment of caustic soda. The saboteur may have tested it on the radios, to confirm that it worked. Once confirmed, the saboteur used it on the refrigeration unit. With the resulting lack of food, the ship would have to turn to the jerky, which the saboteur had poisoned. Moore doesn't agree with this theory. Evey brings up that there were those who were reluctant to come along; Moore continues to not agree. "There's reason to believe the person who wrote the warning letter and the saboteur are the same person. There's enough evidence of danger that caution is called for." Session 1, redux -- searchinatin' Coordination: Thomas and Evey go to holds #1 and #2, Owen goes to #4, and Luo go to #5. The group agrees to keep a note on what they don't know, and trade investigative places after. They may need to re-search at night, as there are too many people about. Russel joins later, and goes to hold #5, after Luo. Luo goes to #5. There's still a heavy kerosene smell, due to the barrels cracking earlier. He doesn't see anything wrong with the fuel, so they go to #4, to join Owen. Thomas goes to #1, with Evey. T checks the generator for basic functioning -- all seems normal, including the straps holding it down. Don't notice anything else awkward about the hold. Owen goes to #5, then to #4. Luo comes into #4 He disassembles the guns to check them out, L comes in mid-assembly. O tells him to check the knives. They check the explosives, and the guns, and the knives... nothing seems out of sorts. They go to hold #2, to join T and G. Russel goes into #5. There's still the heavy fuel smell, la la la. No barrels seem to be leaking now. Doesn't notice owt else. We search the empty holds. Luo, Russel, and Owen go to the rear, moving forward; T and O start at the forward, moving back. The lower holds have no lights, so the group uses the extended lights from the tween holds, as well as torches. Holds #5 and #1 are empty. And now, it's dinnertiems. After dinnertiems, we check out hold tween 3. T goes up, L goes down, E goes up, O goes up, and R goes down. In the lower hold of #3, there is a small stash of supplies, off in a far corner: * almost completely empty set of caustic soda canisters * couple of empty boxes gunpowder * 2 unopened boxes of gunpowder * half-empty can of strychnine Dun dun dunnn, take two! They touch nothing, but search the rest of the area, which is empty. In tween hold #3, open quinine crate -- no caps. Bottles are half-empty. They seem to smell like quinine...? apparently. We search the rest of the crates -- nothing seems immediately amiss. Take the crate up to Moore/SW. O stays to hide in 3-below, to catch the guy. The rest of us go up. Starkweather answers the door. We go in. Show one of the quinine bottles. Also describe the cache. SW approves of our endeavours. Luo recommends checking engines, for the missing gunpowder. SW will get Green for quinine testing. He encourages us to keep an eye out for suspicious stuff. "No stone left unturned!" ... After all others have gone to bed, Luo decides to look in the lifeboats. Russel researches the fuel hold -- #5 tween. Evey joins Luo, and keeps an eye out for Moore. Two on port, two starboard. They have some emergency supplies, but not much. Luo and Evey check the radio room, and various other areas. Before Luo goes to the 5 hold, Evey finds Moore. Moore is in the officer's mess, having a nightcap with Turlough. She discusses the discoveries with Moore. Turlough gets snippety about people maybe pointing fingers at the crew. Evy shuts him down, and Moore mollifies him. Moore wishes to keep the pool of suspects, and pool of those who know, down. Russel, during his investigations, sees a suspicious package. He continues to search; nothing else seems out of place... Luo starts going into the hold behind R, clank clank clank goes the ladder, so R preps by getting ready for a fight, but he sees that it's Luo. Together, they check the lumpy burlap sack. It's a cople of jars. And a bunch of cording around them. Some small quarter-sized cardboard-looking things tied into them. It maaayyy be a bomb... who knows. He doesn't notice anything too suspicious in the front of the hold. He continues to search... nothing. After much deliberation, he picks up the fuses. Luo and Russel dump the things into the water, save one, to take to Moore/SW. Something including the saboteur...? They go to the bridge. 2nd mate is there. Capt, 1st, SW, Moore, in the captain's cabin. Luo almost interrupts, but R stops him, to eavesdrop. Convo, heated. SW / capn both convinced other side the sab. Capn wants cabin/cabin search. Luo interrupts, R guards. L says there's a bomb. Explains where it was found. All agree cabin/cabin search. We find him. Something Hennings, or something. He goes to where R is waiting, throws flares down. There's rustling upstairs from Owen. This is the game that nev-er-ends. Luo observes entrance. Door opens, man dashes out. Luo shouts, runs after. He gets profile. Henning is found clamoring into tarps over lifeboat w small cache of food -- wait there, until close to land. Once surraounded, he cavees. -- no one does much later. Category:Session Logs